Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The disc of pro photos arrived today! Hooray! I'll be putting them in a Flickr folder if you want to order prints that way, or you can also order archival quality prints from Scott C Photography. Also, remember that the highlight gallery photos can only be ordered through the photographer's website.

Updated to add: It appears as though you must be signed in to the owen_harmonwedding flickr account to order prints, though you do not have to be signed in to view or download the photo files. Email me or leave a comment if you lost the password!

Monday, July 27, 2009

I've been asked several times about the hanging paper flower balls that we used as ceremony decorations, and the link to the tutorial is here and here on Folding Trees.com.The directions tell you to you 3"x3" squares of paper but you can use other sizes, as long as the pieces are square. For the wedding kusudama balls I used 6"x6" squares, and I've also used squares as small as 2"x2" to make Christmas ornaments. Also, I just glued the ribbon to the inside of the ball, instead of running it all the way through and securing the end with beads/buttons. The other sneaky trick I employ when making these is to use paperclips as clamps. That way you're not stuck holding the paper petal together, waiting for it to dry. Once you have the basic idea down I would estimate making one ball takes about 3-4 hours. (Fortunately I had help from my mom in making the wedding balls! Extra hands make the process go a lot faster!)

Monday, July 20, 2009

One great way to cool off in Central Missouri is to explore one of the many area caves. We chose a particularly hot afternoon to visit the Ozark Caverns in Lake of the Ozarks State Park. We arrived early for the tour so we took a little hike first.

This is the most striking feature of Ozark Caverns, an area where the water that forms stalactites and stalagmites rains down like a shower into a geologically formed basin.

Us in the cave. In spite of the 100+ degree heat index it was about 60 degrees inside the cave. Chilly!!

One the drive back to the resort we drove down some winding dirt roads in search of the Swinging Bridges. While driving we saw this turtle in the middle of the road! And if you know DH you know he loves turtles ... we had to get out of the car and take this picture.

Speaking of wildlife, we saw deer in people's front yards nearly every time we drove back to our condo.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Now that all this wedding hoopla has passed DH and I find ourselves with a lot of time on our hands. We try not to drive each other crazy being home together every day (I start back to work for the season on August 10th) and one of the things we've been doing to pass the time is make lots of meals from scratch. We recently started planning our dinner menu for the week in advance (an idea we totally stole from Janelle and Drew) and that's working out great. Even DH is enjoying it, and he's always been the "go to the grocery store every day and get what you feel like having at that moment" kind of guy. It also really reduces the chances we'll waste food because we've focused on buying only what we need to make the specific meals we've chosen. All this home cooking has also given us the chance to play with our new toys (aka wedding gifts)! We've used our KitchenAid mixer, waffle iron, baking stone, cookbooks and recipes, and lots of other stuff at least a few times already

In the past few weeks we've made homemade chickpea burgers, red beans and rice with chicken, pizza (with dough from scratch), sushi, carrot-peanut summer soup (surprisingly good), jicama slaw, fish tacos, and lots of other things I can't remember right now. The farmer's market is in full swing these days and our intake of fresh produce has picked up significantly, a much-needed change after a month of celebrations, vacations, and generally eating terribly.

So, one of the bright sides of dual unemployment is getting in to some good habits that will hopefully stick with us when we go back to working full-time.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

So, I finally downloaded the honeymoon pics from the camera and thought I'd start sharing a few. Here are some shots from around the condo where we stayed. As you can see, we were right on the lake with a wonderful view!

View from the condo balcony

Another balcony view

Bill admires the view

Meat!

Lounging on the couch

Mmmm ... coffee.

Same view during the single, 45-minute thunderstorm of the week. Eeep!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

After 4 weeks of marriage we decided it was time to get around to some of those pesky business details involved with entering a legally binding contract, such as combining our auto insurance and getting renter's insurance to cover our possessions (I know, I know, we've been adults for how long and haven't had renter's insurance? I suck at being a grown up, what can I say?) At least I'm not changing my name, and we've had a joint checking account for the last 2 years so the effort involved in taking care of business is minimal.

There are some perks to this process, like the fact that even with adding renter's insurance we're saving over $100 compared to what we were paying for our individual car insurance policies. How is that even possible? Those Progressive commercials may be annoying but man, they are saving us a lot of money. I guess now that we're married we're theoretically more responsible drivers?

Next big thing to look in to: life insurance. I've got a small, term policy through my employer (which I need to update the beneficiary on) but am at a total loss about where to go from there. Recommendations are welcome!

Friday, July 10, 2009

I've had a few people ask about or comment on our music choices for the ceremony and thought I'd post a little about it.

The playlists for all parts of the day were DH's big wedding task and I think he did an amazing job! (Including a great job of deflecting my control-freak tendencies ... "this is your task ... but I want it this way! when will it be done? ... but it's your task, really ...")

For the processional of the grandparents, parents, and bridesmaids we used the song Little Marthaby the Allman Brothers Band. We liked that it was a slightly upbeat instrumental piece as we didn't want the processional to get bogged down. It also set a nice tone for the ceremony and the day as a whole. Plus it was easy to loop so we could let it play as long as necessary.

The second processional piece for my dad's and my entrance was Johnny Cash's version of the David Allan Coe song Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone). The words of this song are a request for a solemn vow and it really spoke to what DH and I feel a wedding is all about. (After all, I've already asked him to "go away to a far off land" with me and he accepted.)

We wanted the recessional to set the tone for the recession to follow so we went with Joey Ramone's version of Wonderful World. It's a song everyone knows in a style that really kicks off the party! This choice was also a little homage to Dorothy and her husband John (who introduced me to this song many years ago in Texas) who were unable to attend our nuptuals due to the imminent birth of their first child, Jackson, who arrived on June 22. Congrats!!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

If you haven't had the chance to look through them already, here's a direct link to the professional photo galleries. I recommend checking out the Highlights gallery first, it is pared down to some of the best images of the day. The full gallery is there as well (all 432 photos of it!) if the highlights leave you hungry for more!The galleries

We should be getting a disc soon of all the photos in the full gallery, though the additional effects included in the Hightlights will not be on the disc.